Red State/Blue State

So now we are thinking about how to write the beginning pages of the epitaph in this dreadful Election Season full of sturm and drang and little content in between. After viewing the SNL debates, and the real ones, it seems that the essence of the election season was captured in comic relief. The real heroes have been the few media outlets and individuals focusing on discussion of the facts. There have been some attempts by the print media: notably the series that focused on where the candidates stand on issues put together by the  Associated Press and some other major newspapers. and the individual Newsweek reporting of Kurt Eichenwald and the Washington Post's David Farenthold, both who did good, old-fashioned nose-to-the-ground digging for facts about some of the hard to come by details of Trump's charitable donations and foreign business interests. It's been a while since it's actually been enjoyable for most to speak of the approaching Election. And there...

There is a small note in the bio of Fred Trump that mentions the connection between Fred Trump, Donald Trump's father, and the singer and activist Woody Guthrie. In the fifties, Guthrie was a tenant in a Brooklyn apartment building that was owned by Fred Trump. Notably, Guthrie wrote of the fact that his landlord (Trump)  stirred up "Racial hate".  This is from the song he wrote called, " Old Man Trump ". " I suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts." He goes on to declare that " Beach Haven is Trump's Tower Where no Black Folks come to roam …" So in retrospect, long before the civil rights case in the 1970's that alleged discrimination in housing for both Trump and his young son, Donald, the father was sowing the seeds for the Election of 2016. Fred Trump was also investigated by the U.S Senate back in 1954 for profiteering from public contracts. All...

The old adage was this:  All politics is local.  But maybe not any more. In today's climate, it's a national nuthouse.  A friend of mine tweeted, "How can you vote for that lunatic?" My reply: "I say that every night about your guy"… The election is almost over. But the post-mortems have already begun. Because not only is the GOP a casualty in this election, but also the Media. They enabled this guy, propped him up, nurtured and fed on him, and then in the closing weeks they descended like vultures after realizing what was about to occur. And as far as the e-mails hacked from a Russian source, there was no accountability or even a semblance of ethical background checks before unloading whatever came off the printer from WikiLeaks in the middle of the night. It's a true Document Dump world of internet memes and conspiracy theories abounding. It's embarrassing for anyone who used to feel that investigative journalists in our country were a c...

The media has been running after Trump like the bright, shiny object that he is. But like a meteor of Sisyphus, burning bright and streaking towards the sun, Trump seems to be flaming out of control at the moment. As he is imploding, my one thought is of the tearful Vladimir Putin lamenting the downfall of his favorite and oh so useful idiot, one Donald J. Trump. The problem may be that no one is shocked, really shocked!, to discover the true nature of Trump.  But the lack of focus on his very real flaws, his character and the shady nature of his business dealings and how he built his empire, are the most telling and perhaps shocking aspects of this whole weird Trump phenomenon. For weeks, one of the few journalists showing some spine in uncovering the details of Trump's flawed character has been Joy Reid, of late the host of the Saturday AM show on MSNBC. She first brought in the Newsweek correspondent digging deeper into his business dealings, and has also featured promine...